![]() I take more recovery than I used to, but not as much as I thought would be needed at this age. In training, especially between repeats, recovery should be extended when you’re old. The day before a race will usually be a walk or short jog. Because of the after-effects, I limit races to one a month at most. My typical program now might be:ĭay 4: medium run, sometimes middling tempoĭay 6: hard session, different from Day 1ĭay 9: medium run, sometimes middling tempoĭay 11 is the next hard session, long run, or race. So the long Sunday run (say) can fall any day of the conventional week. Coronavirus solitude has increased that freedom, with no need even to fit in with friends’ schedules. One major advantage of being old is relative freedom from constraints of work and family. My solution is a flexible training module of ten days. That is impossible to fit into a regular seven-day week. Hard/easy has become hard/easy/easy/easy/easy. By trial and error, I have found the optimum between hard days is four lighter days. Mine goes totally on strike the day after a race or a hard training session. When I first coached an older runner, I developed the mantra, “You can do a 25-year-old’s work if you take a 70-year-old’s recovery.” The body insists on it. If some slow to a walk, well, it is what it is!” Photo: Gavin Liddell Recovery Libby James, Fort Collins, Colorado, 25:11 5K, over-80 world record: “The important thing is to get out there every day. At this age, there’s no embarrassment or overall loss if you start real slow. For longer races, 15K and up (which I haven’t graduated to yet), I would plan to take the first mile or two of the race slow, rather than warm up too long or hard. Start with a walk, roll into a jog, increase the pace to do at least 15 minutes of steady running, mixed with jogs, walks, hydrating, chatting, bathroom stop, as needed, and finish with two race-pace stride-outs of about 30-40 seconds. For races up to 10K, I follow this routine: 45 minutes total warm-up. Every interval or tempo session has 15–20 minutes warm-up. Physiologically, it’s probably a matter of getting the heart-rate up, and thus the oxygen pulsing fast through the bloodstream to the muscles, but the sensation is like a rusty old steam locomotive that takes a mile to get its pistons pumping. I can almost hear the grouchy old body protesting, “What, this again? Gimme a break! Where’s the couch?” Reluctantly, slowly, in about fifteen minutes, it cranks up into hard-run mode. Every interval session, the first repeat comes hard, and is several seconds slower than the eventual average. Every race, my first mile is the slowest. Kids go from lunch to sprint in three seconds, but not when you’re old. The older you are, the more warm-up you need. In fact, I’ve been surprised at 80+ at how quickly it gets better at the job. But over weeks and months, the body adapts, in both speed and endurance, just as it always did. Race-pace makes you gasp, and long runs make you tired, just as they always did. For endurance, you need ordinary long runs, also slowly adding time or distance. Mix in accelerating tempo runs to add variety. For speed, you need intervals (repeats) at race pace, slowly increasing in quantity and quality. You do that by progressively and carefully increasing the work, so the body adapts to each new level of overload. If you aim to race, you need to train the two essentials of racing - speed and endurance. ![]() The Basicsĭespite all the fears about “overdoing it,” the basics are the same. Running hard when you’re old - what’s different? Conclusions so far. His original target races were the World Masters Championships in Toronto at the end of this month, with the long shot hope of repeating the victories and podium placings he attained at 40 and 50. Can you come back to competitive racing at 80? After two years out in your late seventies, is it possible to reach national or international age-group elite level? What are the demands, the risks, the rewards? How is it different?įormer international elite Roger Robinson, after time off for knee replacement surgery, is conducting a one-man experiment, reported here as Still Hungry at 80, Parts 1–4.
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